Jesus & Sadducees: Two Additional Applications

God Overrules Evil Intentions for Good

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 14th, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:18 Now let us turn together to the twelfth chapter of Mark's Gospel, the Gospel according to Mark.

0:30 And will you follow, please, as I read in your hearing the paragraph beginning with verse 18 and concluding with verse 27. Mark 12 and verse 18.

1:15 Seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and dying, left no seed. And the second took her, and died, leaving no seed behind him, and the third likewise. And the seventh left no seed. Last of all, the woman also died.

1:37 In the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of them? For the seven had her to wife. Jesus. Jesus said unto them, Is it not for this cause that you err, that you know not the scriptures, nor the power of God?

1:58 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven. But as touching the dead that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the place concerned, concerning the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You do greatly err.

2:38 One of the most amazing but comforting truths revealed in the word of God is that God is able to take the most, wicked desires, designs, and actions of the most evil of men, and overrule them for the good of his people.

3:03 Joseph's words in Genesis 50 and verse 20 capture this fact in a most striking way. For Joseph, speaking with reference to the horrible and heartless sins of his brothers in selling him into slavery, could say to his brethren, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. And surely this great truth is illustrated in this section of Mark's gospel, when during the third day of the week of our Lord's death, no fewer than four representative groups of the Jews come to our Lord in the temple presence, in order to pose questions to him which have as their common intent that they would ensnare him in his words. They came with evil designs. They came with evil intentions. They spoke in many cases with evil and deceptive words.

4:14 And yet what they meant for evil, God meant for the good of his church. For where would we be? Without some of these tremendously vital statements of our Lord, which form part of his response to the questions raised to him on that third day of the Passion Week. And where do we see the wisdom and the moral courage of our Lord stand out in greater relief than in some of these very settings in which he looks his adversaries, in the eye and eyeball to eyeball, takes them on.

4:56 And without raising any physical opposition, he drives them from the field utterly defeated by the sheer weight and wisdom of his words. Now we turn our attention again this morning to the third question, and our Lord's response to that question is recorded in the passage read in your hearing. We spent one Lord's Day morning in the time allotted for preaching, simply expounding, unpacking, opening up the paragraph. Then we came back last Lord's Day and began to glean from the passage some of the most important lines of application. We've sought to highlight some of the very vital teaching which this incident contains. And we've sought to highlight some of the very vital teaching which this incident contains. And we had time only to note two such observations last Lord's Day morning.

Review of Previous Applications: Skeptics' Techniques and Christ's Method

5:54 And we had time only to note two such observations last Lord's Day morning. We noted first of all the timeless techniques of skeptics who question or deny fundamental truths. The Sadducees were the great apostles of denial. Our text says that they say there is no resurrection.

6:16 And in a parallel passage, Acts 23.8, that system of denial does not exist in the Aryan lifestyle. And in a parallel passage, Acts 23.8, that system of denial does not exist in the Aryan lifestyle.

6:20 , , , , , , , , , . denial branched out and included a denial of the existence of angels or of the human spirit disembodied from man. Well, having noted the timeless techniques of the skeptics in the passage, we then in the second place considered together the method of our Lord in confronting the skeptics. And we noted that our Lord did not insult them or rail on them or demean them, but neither did he thaw over them and flatter them and hope by some indirect and oblique reference to their true state try to win them. Rather, our Lord did three things. He charged them with moral evil, you do greatly err. He exposed their ignorance of both, the scriptures and of the power of God, and then he authoritatively expounded the word of God to them. Now this morning, I hope to complete our present study of this paragraph by setting

Root Causes of Skepticism and Rationalism: Definitions

7:30 before you two more very vital observations from this passage. Not only do we see in it the timeless techniques of skepticism, the method of our Lord in confronting skepticism, but thirdly, we see in it the root causes of skepticism and rationalism. We see in the passage the root causes of skepticism and rationalism. Now in preparing for the message, it occurred to me that I erred in not giving you a working definition of those two words. What do we mean by skepticism and a skeptic?

8:12 And what do we mean by rationalism and a rationalist? Well, basically skepticism is a religion of question marks when it is found in conjunction with religious beliefs and practices. And surely the Sadducees, as religious Jews, were the prototype of religious skeptics. They have a religion of question marks. Its main disposition is one of doubting fundamentals. So when I say that in this passage we see the root causes of skepticism, what I'm saying is we're going to discover the root causes for a religion comprised of question marks over all of the pivotal doctrines of the Word of God. And rationalism, what do I mean by that? Well, we might say that in the realm of religion, we see the root causes of skepticism. And rationalism, what do I mean by that? Well, we might say that in the realm of religion,

9:17 it is a religion in which man's mind is worshiped as god. It is the practice of accepting human

9:29 reason as the only authority in determining the substance and the measure of what one will believe as credible. And surely again, in the Sadducees, we have a picture of religious rationalism. Because their little pea-brains could not hold a notion of the resurrection. That sort of boy just needs a little activity because of that.

9:48 That sort of experience, in the述 ش erection of the body, they therefore denied it. They were religious rationalists whose tenets of belief would be no wider or deeper than the dimensions of their own gray matter. Now you see, taking the Sadducees then as the great prototype of all religious skepticism and rationalism which have plagued Christendom throughout the centuries is not forcing something into the passage. It is seeing what lies on the very surface of the passage. Now according to our Lord, what were and are the two main causes of skepticism and rationalism as evidenced in his dealing with the Sadducees over this question of the resurrection? Well, if you look at verse 24, you have the answer to that question. Jesus said unto them, Is it not for this cause that you err or go astray or possibly that you deceive yourselves, that you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? And he said,

Root Cause 1: Willful, Prejudicial Ignorance of Scripture

11:14 Here our Lord, as it were, digs down through all the flowers and blossoms and fruits of religious skepticism and rationalism and lays bare two major taproots by which the whole tree of rationalism and skepticism is sustained in its life. And our Lord says that the two taproots of skepticism and rationalism are first of all a willful prejudicial ignorance of the content and meaning of Scripture and secondly a willful arrogant ignorance of the power of God. Now let's try to examine these in some detail. First of all, the first root of skepticism and rationalism is a willful, willful, prejudicial ignorance of the contents and meaning of Scripture. Look at the text.

12:24 Jesus said, You go astray, or as I've indicated, you possibly deceive yourselves, not knowing. Now, what is assumed in those words? Well, simply this. He was obviously charging them with being personally responsible, willfully responsible for their ignorance of the Word of God.

12:54 And he further enforces that at the end of verse 27 and says, You do greatly err. And why did these Sadducees, in a peculiar way, leave themselves vulnerable to the charge of willful ignorance? Well, they were part of that nation that had as its great crowning blessing, according to Romans 3, verses 1 and 2, that to it and to it alone was committed the oracles of God. That is the Scriptures.

13:29 Romans 3. What advantage then has the Jew? What is the profit of circumcision? Much every way.

13:37 First of all, that they were immoral. They were entrusted with the oracles of God. Among all the blessings that Israel had as a nation, this was her crowning blessing. She held in her hands as a nation the revelation of God inscripturated.

14:01 She had the oracles of God in her hands. And these Sadducees were part of that nation, who had been given this great gift by God, and charged by God to know the Scriptures, to meditate upon them day and night, to order their thinking and their living and the totality of their existence by the precepts and directives of that Word. And so our Lord charges them with willful ignorance. He says, You go astray.

14:38 You err in that you do not know the Scriptures. And that's not an immorality. That's not cognizant ignorance. You have stepped aside from a path upon which you should have walked, which should have led to the knowledge of the Word of God.

14:52 You've gone astray. There is a charge of willful ignorance. And then we see that it was prejudicial ignorance. And what do I mean by that?

15:04 Well, that when they did read the Word, their minds were so predisposed with their own rationalistic and skeptical prejudice that they did not really see what they should have seen. Notice this in verse 26. Jesus says, But as touching the dead that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses? And then he takes them not to some little obscure incident in the Pentateuch, let alone not some little obscure phrase tucked away in Kings or Chronicles or in the midst of a genealogy, but he takes them to an event that every Israelite was familiar with. When God reveals himself to Moses and indicates his intention to bring his people out of Egypt and to use Moses as his great instrument of that deliverance. So when he says, Have you not read? Well, of course they had read.

16:09 But what Jesus is saying, You've read the passage upon the bush that is in connection with the bush. You have read God saying to Moses at this point in history, I am the God of three men who existed in a previous epoch of history. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Have you not read?

16:33 What is our Lord saying? He's saying, Of course you've read it. But you see in reading it, you are yet ignorant. You are yet ignorant of the Scriptures because you read the Scriptures with a prejudicial mind.

16:50 Every message the passage should have conveyed.

16:54 And that, our Lord says, is the first taproot of all skepticism and rationalism. A willful, prejudicial ignorance of the contents as the meaning of the Word of God. They had never come to the Scriptures with the spirit of, the psalmist, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. They had come to the Scriptures with their minds made up under the pressure of their rationalism saying there can be no doctrine of resurrection and they stoured the Scriptures to find the semblance of a justification for their own prejudicial skepticism and rationalism. They never put themselves down, as it were, in the classroom of Scripture and looked up to Jehovah God to teach them. Rather, they came to Scripture to find any semblance of justification and support for their religion of question marks and their religion of denial. And our Lord says, you're in that condition

Application of Ignorance of Scripture: Combating Error and Valuing the Bible

18:20 because you are guilty of your own sin. Of a willful prejudicial ignorance of the contents and the meaning of Scripture you err in that you know not the Scriptures. Now, by way of application of this fact, surely there is no new thing under the sun. How many times have you and I heard people questioning or denying a foundational truth of Scripture by saying something like this, Ah, but you see, the Bible is full of contradiction.

18:57 And if you ask them to show you one, once in a while I have one who does know, but most of the time they can't. I just very sweetly take them at their word and say, well, I've been giving the better part of 30 some odd years studying this book and, you know, I've yet to find a real contradiction. But if it's full, then surely you'd have no trouble showing me two or three and I hand my Bible to them. You want to see someone swallow their teeth, start burping through their eyebrows?

19:30 Just do that. And in most cases, they are simply parroting something they heard which confirmed them in their what?

19:40 Prejudicial ignorance of the contents and message of the Bible.

19:45 But if they do come up with something, it's evident that they come up with it in exactly the same spirit as the Sadducees. If they turn and pass it, well, look, look, over here in Genesis chapter 1 it says this, but in Genesis chapter 2 it says here, see, the contradiction.

20:01 You see, they've come to the Word of God not to know its message, not to be taught its message, not to have their minds bend to the mind of God. If they have come and if they have some acquaintance, it is only to do what the Sadducees did, to bring forward Scriptures as they did with Jesus. Is it not written in the book of Moses, if a man have a wife and he die and leave no seed, his brother...

20:27 Oh yes, that was out of Moses. But you see, there was much preceding and much following that buttressed and underscored the great doctrine of resurrection, but they could read right over and under and through those passages and never feel the impress of their message. Why? Because they came to Scriptures with a prejudicial mind.

20:57 Now, if true, vital, saving religion can only exist in the full vigor and glory of God, in the glory of its existence where the Scriptures are believingly and humbly read, heard and obeyed, do you see why we are committed to combating willful, prejudicial ignorance of this blessed book? True religion can only flourish where there is a balanced, experiential knowledge of the Word of God. And wherever Jesus says, you may not...

21:39 knowing the Scriptures, you are guilty of the prejudicial ignorance of the content and intent of the Word of God. There, there will be no true religion. There will be nothing but the empty of pharical religious talk and form and ceremony, but no true knowledge of God and of His salvation. And dear people, among other reasons, this is why the Word of God holds such a central place in framing our worship in this place.

22:18 Why do we begin every worship service with the reading of a song so that our first approach is to God in praise our friend by the very Word of God? Why do we do that? That's not a tradition I was brought up with. It's not a tradition any one of the existing or previous elders was brought up with.

22:39 Why do we do that? Why do we have as an integral part of our worship the consecutive reading of the Word of God, Old and New Testaments, occasionally summarizing some of the denser portions of genealogies or the Levitical system, but passing over nothing as irrelevant? Why do we do that? To fill up time?

23:05 Because we've signed a sheet saying we will follow such and such? No, dear people. Why do we do that? And why is public ministry as the apex of our worship?

23:16 Given to the consecutive careful exposition of the Word of God? Or the taking up of great themes and bringing dozens of Scripture to bear upon those themes from the Old and the New Testaments? What's behind all of that? I'll tell you the answer's very simple.

23:36 We don't want the Lord Jesus saying to us, ye doer, not knowing the Scriptures. We do not want true religion to die and it will die. We do not want true religion to die. We want to die in direct as there is a push a heart leaving submissive comprehensive exposure to the Word of God.

24:06 Oh, Bishop Ryle, in his simple, straightforward, blunt way understood this well and commenting on this very passage, listen to what he says. We learn in this passage how much of religious error may be traced to ignorance of the Bible. Our Lord's words in reply to the Sadducees declare this plainly. He says, you do err because you know not the Scriptures.

24:35 The truth of the principle laid down is proved by facts in almost every age of church history. The Reformation in Josiah's day was closely connected with the discovery of the book of the law. The false doctrines of the Jews in our Lord's time were the result of neglecting the Scriptures. The dark ages of Christendom were times when the Bible was kept back from the people.

25:03 The Protestant Reformation was mainly effected by translating and circulating the Bible. The churches which are most flourishing at this day are churches which honor the Bible. The nations which enjoy most moral light are nations in which the Bible is most known. The parishes in our land where there is most true religion are those in which the Bible is most studied.

25:29 The godliest families are Bible-reading families. The holiest men and women are Bible-reading people. Those are simple facts that cannot be denied. Let these things sink deeply into our hearts and bear fruit in our lives.

25:47 Let us not be ignorant of the Bible. Lest we fall. Let us not fall into some deadly error. Let us rather read it diligently and make it our rule of faith and practice.

25:58 Let us labor to spread the Bible over the world. The more this book is known, the better the world will be. Not least, let us teach our children to value the Bible. The very best thing we can give our children is a knowledge of the Word of God.

26:19 And I do want to bring a word of application. I want to bring a word of application to you children leading into it from the words of Bishop Ryle. Dear children, do you know why mommy and daddy insist that with all the homework piling up and with all the games to be played and all the fun to be had and all the other things to be done, they insist that a time every day be set aside to read the Word of God to you? To discuss the Scriptures with you? Why?

26:50 Because they know the light of this book. It shapes your thinking about yourself and the world and death and the life to come and everything in this life that your life will be worth anything worth living. That's why you have family worship. That's why others of you have been placed in a Christian school where all of behavior and perspectives on all of the disciplines you must learn are judged and trained by the Word of God.

27:26 And you, dear children, have sung, have you not, Holy Bible book divine? Precious treasure, thou art mine. Mine to teach me whence I came. Mine to show me what I am.

27:43 And then the hymn goes on to speak of this precious treasure is the only way in which we can learn what we are as sinners and how to be right with God as sinners through the Lord Jesus. It is God's instrument to rebuke us when we sin, to guide us into paths of righteousness. And I say to you, dear children, what a horrible thing to come to age, the age of maturity when you leave the home and to have Jesus say to you, you do go astray greatly not knowing the Scriptures though the Scriptures surround you where the native air you breathe from your mother's womb. Because of your own willful prejudicial ignorance you do not know the Scriptures. Dear children, do not despise your privileges but pray and pray often, O God. Give me a heart to love your Word, to know your Word.

Application to Skeptics: The Peace of God's Word

28:49 Bend my spirit before the authority of your Word. And I say to you, the Lord, when people raise objections to you, how can a God of love send people to hell? If God is sovereign, how did this tragedy come to pass? Don't be put on the defensive.

29:12 Such an attitude reflects willful prejudicial ignorance of the Word of God. And be like your Lord. Don't demean people. Don't publicly scold or shame them.

29:24 But tell them bluntly, say, my dear friend, the very fact you raise that question shows you don't know the Scriptures. If you knew the Scriptures, you wouldn't be asking, how can a God of love send people to hell?

29:42 How can a God of holiness send people to hell? But send me to hell.

29:52 Being a sinner, ever hope to find acceptance with the Holy God. Will you help me? You start reading the Scriptures seriously. Not with the mind of a prejudiced skeptic and a rationalist, but with the mind and heart of a fallen creature.

30:10 And your questions will not be ones in which God must justify His ways to you. You'll be concerned on how in the world can your ways ever be justified to God. And you know they can't be on any other grounds but grounds that God in His love and grace and infinite wisdom has composed of the incarnation and the perfect life and substitutionary death of His beloved Son. And in Christ, who is the wisdom and power of God, that great question will be answered.

30:49 What do I say to the skeptic or rationalist who sits here today that may ask you, friend, does your religion of question marks bring you peace? Does your religion, friend, framed by nothing wider than the dimensions of your brain bring you peace?

31:08 Do your questions bring you rest?

31:12 Does your measuring reality with your brain ever leave you prostrate, lost in wonder and awe in the presence of the thrice holy God? My friend, the religion of a rationalist doesn't have a God big enough to elicit an ounce of true worship. And the religion of a skeptic doesn't have anything certain enough to give peace for a moment. My friend, be honest.

31:39 Your religion of skepticism and rationalism really isn't much to crow about, is it? What's your problem? You are erring. You're going astray.

31:50 Because you are willfully, prejudicially ignorant of the content and message of this book. And you need this day to get down off your high horse of willful ignorance and bow before God and say, Oh God, give me the heart of a teachable child before your truth. Teach me who you are. Teach me what I am.

32:14 Teach me how I may know you and love you and serve you and how I may have the peace of knowing that I've come to rest in the great realities that will stand me in good stead in life, in death, and in the world to come. Well, that's the first root. Of all skepticism and rationalism, it is willful, prejudicial ignorance of the Word of God. But then Jesus lays bare the second root.

Root Cause 2: Willful, Arrogant Ignorance of God's Power

32:44 Look at it in the words of the text. He says, Is it not for this cause that you err, that you go astray, that you do not know the Scriptures, nor the power of God? And the verb, you do not know, in its negative form or with its negative prefix, its negative particle ahead of it, He is carrying that over and saying, You do not know the power of God. What is He telling them?

33:15 He's saying the second root of your skepticism and rationalism is this, a willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God. Not only a willful, prejudicial ignorance of the Word of God, but a willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God. Now, why do I say willful? For the same reason.

33:41 He charges them with being guilty of this ignorance. You go astray. You err. You are responsible for this error.

33:52 You're responsible for going astray. And if the verb should be translated in the middle sense, as some suggest, you deceive yourselves. He's saying this is something you're responsible for. You have a willful ignorance of the power of God.

34:09 And then it's arrogant. Because, you see, they came thinking that with their reason, they could demonstrate that the doctrine of resurrection of the body was absurd. And they used with Jesus a form of argumentation called in classic logic, reductio ad absurdum. Now, that's not swearing. That's Latin.

34:33 Reductio ad absurdum. And that's a form of argument in which you start with a premise and you drive it to its logical conclusion and show it is so absurd that the only way to keep your sense of sanity is to reject the premise with which you started that landed you in such a hopeless mess of absurdity. Now, notice how they did it. Here was their first premise.

34:59 The resurrection of the body must result in the continuity of this present order. That was their starting premise. They accepted that as a given. Resurrection of the body means that there will be in the world to come a reconstitution of life as it now is.

35:20 So they come to Jesus with that premise assumed and they say, alright, premise number two. In this present order, seven men had one wife. Now, in the resurrection, since the resurrection will be a continuity of this present order, whose wife shall she be? Reductio ad absurdum.

35:45 Are you going to say she's going to be the wife of the first? Why, the other six will feel cheated because they have as much claim to her as he did since there was no child born by any of them. So, what you're saying then in the resurrection, the first will have her and the other six will be cheated? How can the resurrection to life be a state of equity and righteousness and blessedness if six are cheated for the sake of one?

36:14 And certainly you're not going to say God's going to cut her up into seven pieces and give each one one seventh of her. One will have an arm and a shoulder, another one a leg and a knee. Ha, ha, ha! See what they've done?

36:26 They've started with a premise that resurrection is the continuity and extension of the present order into the world to come. And they've taken that premise and driven it, driven it, driven it, until they think we've reduced the whole premise to absurdity, therefore chuck it out. Who knows how many times they use this very ploy with the Pharisees and shut their mouths. Because they seem to be very confident that they've done to our Lord.

36:55 If a man's brother die, and they even use the language of resurrection, they say in the resurrection, verse 23, we'll take you at your words that there is a resurrection, but we'll show that that concept is so absurd that any thinking person will utterly throw it over. Now, what was that? That was arrogance. You see, there was not only willful ignorance, but there was arrogant ignorance because what was their fundamental problem?

37:27 Their first premise was absolutely wrong. You see, they had a view of God's power that dictated their premise. They say if we give God enough credit with the ability to raise people from the dead, the most He could do was to raise them to the dead, from the dead to a state equal to the state of this present life. And their truncated arbitrary limits on the power of God framed their first premise.

37:58 You see that? And Jesus said, you go astray because you are willfully, arrogantly ignorant of the power of God. And so the Lord then turns and says, but as touching the dead that they are raised, have you not, I'm sorry, verse 25, for when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven, or in the fuller treatment in the gospel according to Luke, Luke chapter 20,

38:34 that they that are accounted worthy to attain to that world, verse 35, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. You see what Jesus does? He says, your first premise is all wet. You are willing to give a God who may have enough power to reconstitute a human body out of the dust of the dead body, only to limit that power to reconstituting the present order.

39:15 But, he says, that is not according to reality in the resurrection. Though there will be continuity between this present body and the resurrection body, there will be some vast areas of discontinuity. Since there will be no death, there will be no need for procreation. Since there is no need for procreation, there will be neither marriage nor giving in marriage, and whatever relationship we may sustain to those to whom we were married in this age, in the age to come, there will be radical differences determined not by the little pea-brain of you Sadducees, but determined by the mighty, limitless power of Almighty God. So he charges them with willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God. Now, this was especially culpable. They had the Scriptures.

Evidence of God's Power and Rebuking Arrogance

40:16 And what are the first words of Genesis? In the beginning, God created nothing

40:33 claiming to believe Genesis 1-1. How in the world could they ever come up with that premise? That if God has enough power to resurrect, He can only resurrect to the present order of things. My friend, if God can bring galaxies and worlds

40:52 and systems into being by the word of Him,

40:59 is it for Him to raise the dead and then to elevate them to a state beyond what they ever knew down here? What big deal is that, he said to you, of a willful ignorance of the powers of those oracles that fortune from the dead should be no big deal to you? You claim to believe the story of the Exodus when by mighty power and the miracles God delivered His people, and in the wilderness provided manna from heaven and water out of a rock, and caused the thick walls of mighty Jericho to go down with a shout. You Sadducees say you believe the Scriptures. You are willfully, arrogantly ignorant of the power of God displayed all through those very Scriptures. Furthermore, at this very season, you know what was the talk of all Jerusalem? We don't have time to look at the passages.

42:04 I'll only mention them. But in John 11, 45, 47 to 48, and John 12, 9 to 11, John makes it clear that at this very season, you know what the talk of all Jerusalem was? Jesus' act of raising Lazarus from the dead. And the leaders were so frustrated, they said, if we don't do something, the whole world's going after Him, and we're going to lose our place and our nation.

42:27 These Sadducees had heard that a man had been raised from the dead just a few days before, and his body had already begun to decay. Behold, he stinks.

42:39 They were willfully, arrogantly ignorant of the power of God. They had not only the witness all the way back to Genesis 1, they had it a few days before, in the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And so with their skepticism and rationalism, they would discount the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. And where we face willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God, we need to call it what it is.

43:12 That's exactly what Paul did in 1 Corinthians 15 when dealing with certain people who were introducing to the church at Corinth the idea that there is no bodily resurrection when he comes to deal with their objections framed in their skepticism. And rationalism, what does he say in verse 35? He says, O foolish, senseless, ignorant ones, aphro, the alpha privative. And you know, you Greek students, phaneo, that family of words having to do with the head, with the mind.

43:45 He says, without a mind. That's what he says to the proud one who says, ha, ha, ha, resurrection from the dead? What kind of body are they going to have? He says, you foolish ones, you're talking like a fool.

43:55 Because resurrection is measured not by what little puny man can figure out and do, but by the mighty power of the almighty God. Now, by application, you see how things don't change. People come up to us today in their skepticism and rationalism and they say, ha, you don't really believe, do you? You just dropped an eave from Adam's rib.

44:22 I mean, do you believe that? It'd be a fact. You don't believe that a snake talked to Eve. I mean, you know what happens to women when they get near a snake.

44:32 If the snake could talk, the woman would be in the next county before he got out his first word.

44:43 See, the donkey talked to a maize and night. Oh, what we know, he just suffocated. The digestive moved him. Oh, come off it, my friend.

45:01 We do err, knowing the power.

45:06 God could have made Eve.

45:15 Becadaster could have spoke her into being out of nothing, like he did the galaxies.

45:20 But he took a rib because God wanted to do something and get a message through to us, not only in which he displayed his power, but his intention. And as we shall see in our Sunday school class some weeks hence, God willing, that very act of taking the woman out of the man is with profound theological and practical significance. And God knew what he was doing and why he was doing it.

45:50 And if Almighty God can make a great fish to hold a man, he can hold back the juices or put something in the man to immunize him against the digestive juices. That's no big deal for God. He made the juices in the first place. You see, skepticism and rationalism feeds on the horrible carrion of willful, arrogant ignorance of the power of God.

46:18 And dear people of God, don't ever be bullied by the so-called sophisticated sneer of the arrogant and the willful unbelief of skeptics and of rationalists. And if I'm talking to any sinner who sits here vaunting himself in his own arrogance, proud that you don't tremble at the thought that Almighty God will raise you from the dead and bring you to judgment in the last day, remember what God does is not measured by the limitations put upon him by your little mind and by your little mind. That is your wicked unbelief. But what God will do with you is measured by his own intention linked to his own power.

The Authoritative Manner of Christ's Teaching on the Age to Come

47:03 And you will stand before him. Here are the two tap roots of skepticism and unbelief. There is this willful ignorance of the word of God and willful ignorance of the power of God. And now, in closing and very briefly, I want you to notice finally the authoritative manner in which our Lord speaks

47:32 of the resurrection and the world to come. And I want to close on this note the authoritative manner in which our Lord speaks of the resurrection and the world to come. You see, it was evident to the Sadducees who from time to time had heard our Lord. Very little is said of them, particularly in Mark's Gospel.

47:54 But in terms of putting Scripture with Scripture, it is unthinkable that God would say, they would not have heard of some of the leading lines of our Lord's teaching. And again and again in his teaching from the Sermon on the Mount and in such passages as John 5 and John 11, Jesus preached often about the resurrection both of the righteous and of the unrighteous. So in this context, they come to Jesus evidently knowing that he believes and teaches and preaches concerning the resurrection of the dead. And so they are out to discredit him as a teacher with this form of argumentation, this reductio ad absurdum with regard to the doctrine of resurrection.

48:34 But that he believed in it, they had no question. And what amazes me as I look at the passage is the authoritative, unruffled manner in which our Lord speaks of the resurrection and of the world to come. And to my knowledge, says some things in this incident that are nowhere explicitly declared prior to this time, nor are they declared with equal clarity subsequent to this time. They bring a question based on the problem of marriage in relationship to the age to come and in the day of resurrection.

49:12 Jesus, without being ruffled at all, says, I will tell you authoritatively something about that age of which you are ignorant and which you have not even conceived as possible because of your arrogance and your ignorance of the power of God. And it is this, that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels of God. They are deathless. There will be no decay, no degeneration leading to heart attacks and to clogged arteries and to failed vital signs.

49:49 They will be sons of the resurrection. And he speaks with clarity and he speaks with authority as one who had actually, as it were, seen the resurrected state and is describing it to those who had not. My friend, this should give us great comfort as the people of God to know that though there are many things about the age to come concerning which we are abysmally ignorant, isn't it wonderful to be bound in faith and love to one who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. And to know from this little passage here that whatever the resurrected state will be, surely my Lord who died to bring me to it with him,

50:45 my Lord will see to it that everything about that state will bring optimum glory to his work as Redeemer and optimum bliss and usefulness and happiness to me, his creature for whom he shed his precious blood. And you see, this takes all the antsiness out of a Christian's spirit. Well, I've got to know about this and I've got to know. No, I know him whom I have believed.

51:16 And in this passage he speaks with such unruffled authority about the age to come that surely entrusting myself to my dear Lord Jesus Christ, knowing this much, that in his resurrection he is called in 1 Corinthians 15 the first fruits of them that sleep, that his open tomb in Palestine is the pledge of my empty grave in the last day, and that he is he has risen to life in his glorified body, a life that can now no longer be touched with weakness and weariness and sickness and death. So I too shall be with him, sharing in that quality of life in his immediate presence, serving him with unflagging zeal and untiring energy, loving him with undivided affections. And what a wonderful thing to entrust myself to one who speaks with authority about that age to come because he is the Lord over the age to come.

Warning to Unbelievers: The Certainty of Future Judgment

52:34 Dear child of God, whenever you are troubled with questions about this or that in reference to the age to come, come back to a passage like this and say Jesus could have just as easily gone on and described for 20 chapters all the details about the age to come if he had chosen to. He knows it all in fullness. And I can trust him. And my sinner friend, listen, there is one thing about the age to come he has made very plain, very plain for your sake.

53:10 And that is this, that you too will be raised from the dead. The hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth. They that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. They that have done good to the resurrection of life.

53:28 My sinner friend, you will be raised from the dead. You will be raised from the dead. The grave is not the end of you. And you will stand before Christ, the great judge of the world.

53:42 In Matthew 25 he described it graphically under the imagery of a shepherd separating sheep from goats and consigning the goats to everlasting punishment by the sheer power of his magisterial word. And dear friends, Jesus did not speak authoritatively about the age to come to satisfy curiosity but to prepare men for that age. And he has told you enough about where your sin will take you and the future judgment in the horrible hell that awaits you, soul and body. He has told you enough to make you, if you take it seriously, flee from the wrath of Christ who was swallowed up in God's wrath against sin that we might not know the fierceness of that fury if we are hidden in Christ. My sinner friend, you don't need to know a bunch of details. You just need to know this. Go on living the way you live.

54:48 Die and you must and you know you shall. And one day you will be raised from the dead and stand before this very Christ.

54:59 Hear him say, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. And it says, These shall go, these shall go, these shall go

55:12 into everlasting torment.

55:18 With the tears of his mercy you now refuse, you spurn them, you turn away from them, you stifle them, you smother them. There will be no smothering, stifling or turning away when he says depart. Depart! You shall go into everlasting.

55:37 Oh dear sinner friend, why has he revealed it? Why do I as his servant tell you this? Not to see it come to pass, but that you might flee the wrath to come to you. That you might run from your sin which will take you to hell and run to Christ who bore the hell of his people upon the cross.

56:03 That they might share the glory of the heaven that is his by right.

Final Exhortation: Reject Skepticism, Embrace Christ

56:09 And here in this passage it is this same Lord Jesus with whom each one of us shall have dealings in the last day. May God grant that we shall not walk out of here in the spirit of the Sadducees. Skepticism, rationalism, what a horrible curse. But may we walk out believing in Christ, rejoicing in him as our savior, confident when we face current expressions of this spirit, that we need not answer all the objections raised against our faith, but look at the skeptic with his cynical eyebrow and say, sir, with all your questions and your problems, tell me, do you have peace? And you say, I know my sins are forgiven. I know I'm right with God. I don't believe!

57:03 Yes, I know you don't, but answer my question.

57:07 Just lovingly, prayerfully, lay the word of God upon the conscience as did the savior. And may God be pleased by his grace to take even some modern Sadducees and bring them to the humility of true repentance and faith and then to see them made the humble disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you again for this portion of your word.

57:44 Thank you for all of the helpful principles it contains. And we ask that you will enable us by your grace to assimilate its truth, to respond to its light in humility and in faith. O God, wherever the spirit of arrogant, unbelieving, willfully ignorant Sadduceeism prevails in this building today, will you not purge it away by the power of your grace? O Lord, seal your word to our hearts and may your name be praised in our believing response to it.

58:28 We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.